S-Clarke

I'd massively argue that. He got Ingolstadt from the second division in Germany, to mid-table in the Bundesliga in 3 years. Inglostadt are now in the third division in Germany. He took over RB Leipzig in their first season in the Bundesliga and they finished 2nd. He had some money for sure, but you have to be a decent coach to do that.

Must be on a wind up.

You're right, we should have just stayed in sheds.

I wouldn't be against having Elyounoussi in and around the squad, as you're right we can't move absolutely everyone on. But his appearances need to be less than they were this year if we are to truly progress.

Maybe this is more of a case of an option had they stayed down? That I could somewhat believe. But If they can't keep Garner they'll have to aim higher than Smallbone to stand a cat in hells chance of survival.

Sounds like that horrible clique of player-power morons have got rid of yet another 'voice'. Rangnick said it how it was, so rather than play up for the manger they down tools for him and then ensure the club ditch him in any capacity for next season. Ten Haag has a very toxic job there. The players will probably get him gone in 6 months tops.

Shane Long can 'keep on going in the summer' as contract end approaches | Daily Echo Please don't, Saints. Please.

I mean the bar isn't set that high to be honest. His goal contributions from the number 10 areas are higher than the other number 10's, sure, but they're still absolutely pitiful and nothing to be happy about.

Worrell isn't streets ahead of what we have, in my opinion. He's like Liam Cooper who came up with Leeds, top in the Champ but will likley be average in the top league. I do like Garner though, I think he's such a tidy midfielder. The links we have are very predictable though. Colwill, Gibbs-White, Garner - all would have been in the England youth teams when Crocker was in charge. Talented young players, but I'd like to see some links to experienced players too!

There were similar scenes at the Euro Final a year ago at Wembley, it was all about the fans then and the dreadful behaviour of them. The videos I've seen from last night show exactly the same. Groups of fans jumping over railings, busting through barriers, knocking over fences - yet the fans are being absolved of any blame? Of course innocent fans are going to be caught up in the carnage which is never nice to see, but that's the only people they're interviewing so they're going to get skewed views. It looked clear to me that somehow Liverpool got more fans into their end than they should have. Real Madrid, one of the most successful clubs in the world, seem to have got through last night without many problems with their fans quite comfortably filling their end and looking more organised. But of course, it's not Liverpool's fault.

No, I'd imagine their direct manager would be Matt Crocker and someone at that level.

I think with the budget they 'were' operating under they've done fairly well. I have more confidence than I did previously. If you look at our record since Crocker came in and re-shaped the scouting we've brought in Tino, Broja, KWP, Diallo, Salisu, Small, Perreud, Armstrong, Lyanco, Theo I'd suggest that there were more hits than not in that group. You're never going to get 100% success, but you want to make sure you get the majority right which I think we have. Signing Theo is the only massive blot on their copybook atm. If you compare it to where we were previously - Adams, Moussa, Armstrong, Redmond, Hoedt, Lemina, Boufal, Vestergaard, Carillo, Ings, Gunn, Elyounoussi- you get the picture! Maybe 3 or 4 successes out of those.

It does seem like he landed this coach role by default because he was 'good to have around the club', but fundamentally his job was to coach and assist and challenge Ralph but I don't think that ever happened. Stick him in an ambassadorial role if we want someone who is 'good around the club'. I'm not disagreeing that he is a good person, and he will be remembered by Saints fans for ever. He's a good guy. But you can't say it's been working with him as a coach (he was a first team coach before Ralph too)

I would agree that one more big sale, when the squad is in the state it currently is, would be curtains for us. I don't see it happening though, I can't imagine Sports Republic want to start the regime by selling our best player and captain. By all means our model is still going to be selling our best players over time and re-investing, but you have to choose that time carefully. If we have a big summer and end next season which a much better team and more standout players, then it's probably an easier time for him to leave as we could absorb it better. At the moment you sell him and pretty much start from scratch and that's a lot to do in a single summer.

I don't know what you'd expect to see in this scenario. They were coaches in the backroom staff, you're not going to get the ownership of the club on a call to give them a send off. That doesn't happen in the real world anyway, I could give my company 20 years of service and I'd probably be told on a video call with my direct line manager and that would be that. I imagine Ralph was fully briefed and involved before hand.

He did better than I thought he was going to do, and he looked better at times than he's ever looked for us before....but that's not saying much, as he was inept before and now in some games he's moved to around average. Bottom line is we need better than Elyounoussi, another average as hell player with no outstanding attributes. I wouldn't give him a new contract, but I'd wouldn't say it's a problem keeping him around as a squad player and letting him go on a free next year.

Bednarek is pretty much as average as you get, he was 23/24 when Ralph came in and he probably saw potential but sadly he just hasn't progressed at all. The way we play does leave the back 4 quite exposed, certainly when the press gets played through, but that just shows me that we need a better CB and Number 6 who can nullify those threats. There's nothing that really stands out about him. He's not strong and gets out muscled very easily, he's slow as all hell and can get turned on the break, he's poor on the ball and is prone to brain fart passes out of the defence and mentally he's not a 'leader' type, he wilts when the going gets tough. Salisu is young, very young. Inexperienced and learning a new league. The difference with Salisu are his raw attributes, he has pace, he has strength and power so immediately he offers us more than Bednarek. But as he's inexperienced he will dip and waiver, that's where he needs a Fonte type figure to see him through which we don't have. So Salisu is our future, we just need to ensure we compliment him with a much better CB who can help his game. No problem with Bednarek being relegated as a squad player, which is what he was signed for in the first place, but we do need to do much better than him. He's been one of the consistent factors in our pitiful defence for 3 years.

Jeez.

Finances maybe? Any free money ploughed into the first team squad player wise?

I'm not saying he's the succession plan, more the approach I think we'll take with coaches.

Not sure what I think of this - Tottenham place £25m valuation on Harry Winks with home-grown midfielder set to LEAVE north London | Daily Mail Online 1) Doing a deal with Tottenham over a midfielder when we have JWP here makes me feel uneasy 2) £25m is just a stupid amount of money for someone pretty average. £10-15m tops I'd say, pretty uncomfortable spending a huge part of our budget on him.

Interesting shout. I think the owners will look for coaches who could potentially evolve into a succession plan for Ralph. That's what they did at Brentford, they gave Dean Smith a new assistant in Thomas Frank with the expectation that he'd evolve into the first team manager if/when Dean Smith left and that's exactly what happened. I guess they looked at Fleming, Watson and Davis and saw no succession plan there what so ever, so they're putting their markers down. This could be a Rasmus influenced change.

Sounds like something out of nothing, trying to make a story.

Seriously? I suggested Fredericks a few weeks back, he was someone we'd been linked with previously and can fill the obvious full back void we have - for free! A full back wasn't a target for this summer until Tino got injured, now we need to get cover. A freebie English rb, with PL experience as a squad player makes total sense to me. This isn't a 'first team' signing by any means, it'll add cover whilst Tino recovers.

I think they are a bit daft to be honest, the goals we can get from them are very rare and a bit freakish. In the main they seem to cause us problems as we automatically become lopsided when we're broken on, and it's not hard to break on us as we know! I think it's a daft tactic to try and gain the most minuscule advantage ever, easily nullified as well. The fact we're looking for these minuscule gains is probably a big admission that our creative players are absolute tosh! Let's just let the full backs take the throw in's as every football club has done, since the year dot and buy better creative players to make chances in the conventional way.